DWD's Reviews

                  Quite the Thriller! Mind Prey  is the seventh in a series of novels featuring Lucas Davenport, a tough police detective in Minnesota. It is the third and definitely the best that I have read in the series. John Sandford Davenport is more than a detective, he also designs role-playing and computer simulation games, a hobby that blossomed into a multi-million dollar business. The twist in this plot is that the bad guy is a psycho who happens to love role-playing games. He kidnaps one of his former therapists to fulfill some of his twisted fantasies and then gets a bigger thrill when he discovers that the designer of some his favorite games is on the case. (Imagine a 'Dungeons and Dragons' player matching wits against Gary Gygax and you've got the scenario) Mind Prey  is really quite a good thriller - it was very difficult to put the book down while reading the last 75 pages. This book can be found on Amazon here:   Mind Prey     I rate this bo

An Uneven Read at Best Published in 1999. Rockefeller Center  Sounding Drum  is a book that does not know what it wants to be. It is partially a legal/business thriller and partially a "buddy book" farce. It features a group of New York City American Indian friends, led by attorney Stephen Drum, that go against the mafia, a blackmailer/assassin, the federal government, the New York State government, the New York City government and all of the odds to put an Indian reservation in New York City with an accompanying "Indian" casino in Rockefeller Center. Sounding Drum  is frustrating, however, because the thriller aspects are not consistent and the fun "buddy book" parts only kick in during the last 50 pages or so. It makes for a herky-jerky read and is ultimately unsatisfying. That is why I am giving it a 2 stars out of a possible 5 stars. This book can be found on Amazon here:  Sounding Drum . Reviewed on February 12, 2005.

     Fascinating! Informative! As the title implies,  Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush   is a collection of biographcial essays on each of the 10 presidents from FDR to George H.W. Bush (Bush 41) by 10 different authors who are either expert historians or knew the President while in office. The thing that ties them all together is that each essay is supposed to look at each man as president and find that one part of his character that made him the type of president he was. Each essay is about 30 pages and it makes for interesting reading. Doris Kearns Goodwin A good sample would come from Doris Kearns Goodwin's look at Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She asserts that the most valuable component of his personality was his self-confidence. I thought this quote from FDR makes the point wonderfully: "I'll tell you...at night when I lay my head on my pilow, and it is often pretty late, and I think of the things that have come before me during the

             An OK Thriller Synopsis: There have been a series of violent murders involving women with no known connection having their throats slashed with a some kind of weapon that the NY City coroners have never seen before. A special task force is set up to catch the mysterious killer and Lt. John Vinda, a tainted cop is placed in charge of the investigation (partially because he's that good and partially because he will be easy to pin the blame on since he is already damaged goods). Exceptional Clearance  was an enjoyable read, but it was kind of like eating a handful of candy - it was fun while it was going down but there wasn't much to it. There was an interesting twist to the manhunt in that the cop and the serial killer have both suffered similar losses. It is interesting to see how the serial killer has warped himself into a monster while Vinda has buried himself in his job to avoid his pain. In reality, he's not dealing with his loss that much better than t

     Enjoyable Synopsis: Like the cover says, The Life and Times of the Apostle Paul is "a colorful retelling of the world's most famous mission story." St. Paul by Masaccio Ball is an amateur expert on the 1st century Roman empire and has personally led tour groups throughout the cities that Paul visited during his mission trips to Asia Minor and Greece. He covers Paul's life from early childhood in his work so it must be considered historical fiction since so many details of Paul's life and his trips are not covered in the book of Acts or in his epistles. It is an enjoyable book - not a great work by any means but I enjoyed reading it and felt that I learned a little something along the way as well. The details on the life around the Jerusalem temple and about the cities Paul visited make it worth reading, even if you are not a great fan of Paul. I give this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Life and Times of

      240 beautiful, beautiful pictures Scott Russell Sanders With an introduction by Scott Russell Sanders ("This Piece of the Earth We Call Indiana") Wild and Scenic Indiana is a beautiful collection of more than 240 pictures of all parts of (mostly) rural Indiana taken by professional photographer Rich Clark. Clark moved to Indiana from Colorado and, as he puts it, has "ceased to be amazed at how alluringly beautiful my chosen state is." (pg. 7) Clark has mastered capturing what he calls "Indiana's demure beauty" (pg. 7) and he proudly shows them off on the oversized 12 in X 12 in full color pages. The book is broken up into chapters based on the physiographic map of Indiana. This means it is based on the major geographical zones of the state. It is an odd way to organize the book, but it does have a certain sense of logic to it. This is a beautiful coffee table book, one that any Hoosier would be pleased to flip through. I rate th